The Perumatty panchayat in Palakkad district in Kerala, which had last week issued a licence to multinational beverage company Coca Cola to operate its Plachimada plant for three months, on Monday rejected the cola company's request to operate for two years.In its meeting, the panchayat council stuck to its June 6 decision -- of granting the cola company "conditional permission" to operate the plant for only three months.
The company on June 9 had given a notice to the panchayat, disputing its decision and stating that it ran against the Kerala High Court decision, which specified restoration of licence for two years.
After a detailed discussion of the company's letter, the local body's administrative council decided to turn down the demand, panchayat president A Krishnan said.
Besides allowing operation for only three months, the panchayat had laid down 13 conditions, which required the company to get clearances from the health and pollution control agencies before resuming operation.
The Kerala High Court on June 1 directed the panchayat to renew the licence for the Cola plant within a week and said that if the local body refused to comply with the order, it would be deemed that the company's licence had been renewed.
The Coca Cola plant was shut down in March 2004 after the panchayat declined to renew the licence citing indiscriminate use of ground water by the company, resulting in water shortage in the region.
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